Public Tours Of Windover Ending Soon

December 27, 1986|By Laurin Sellers of The Sentinel Staff

TITUSVILLE — The public will have its last chance next Friday and Saturday to tour the Windover Archeological Project, where scientists have unearthed human skulls containing well-preserved brains 7,000 to 8,000 years old.

The site, an early Indian burial pond south of Titusville, will be closed to the public permanently after Jan. 3. Field excavations that began in 1984 are expected to end Jan. 15 as scientists take their finds into laboratories.

The site at 8006 Windover Way is south of State Road 50 near the Interstate 95 overpass.

Since mid-October, more than 4,000 people have toured the site, watching archeologists unearth human bones and artifacts buried 10 to 12 feet beneath a drained pond.

The archeologists have recovered more than 50 skulls containing brain tissue that is considered the best-preserved ever found. All but three brains have been frozen for future scientific study.

The site also has yielded pieces of intricately woven cloth believed to be the oldest flexible fabric found in the Southeast. Tools made of bone and wood discovered with the burials are believed to have been used by the Indians to create the fabric.

Archeologists also have found almost 140 skeletons, more than half of them children.

Through their discoveries, scientists hope to better understand the environment and lifestyles of Florida's first inhabitants.

Scientists from the United States and Canada will study material from the site. Their research will be compiled in an environmental record of the past 10,000 years in east Central Florida.

The site was discovered in 1982 when construction workers uncovered human bones as they dredged a small pond.

Final site tours will be held between 1 and 3 p.m. Artifacts recovered from Indian dwellings near Tampa also will be displayed.

The exhibit, titled ''300 feet by 35 miles: Corridor to the East,'' uses original artifacts, reproductions and graphics to tell the story of early Indian hunters.

Arrowheads, scrapers and other tools used by Indians 4,000 to 12,000 years ago are included in the display sponsored by the Community National Bank.